XmisterIS
Purveyor of fine nonsense
There are quite a few cycle paths round my way that I feel are actually more dangerous/tedious than the road!
My reasons as follows:
1) Cars emerging from minor roads tend to give way to me if I am on the road, but not if I am on the cycle lane on the pavement - they often don't see cyclists on the pavement because we have a lot of trees and grass verges on the pavements round here, which means the pavement is very wide and set well back from the junction.
2) Pedestrians don't always move when I ring my handlebar bell from behind them, or they panic and start hopping from side to side, saying "Sorry mate! Errr ... sorry mate!", despite the fact that I have squeezed myself far over to the left ... so they should hop to the opposite side ... duh!
3) Some of these cycle paths are actually a bloody nuisance! I'll give you one example in particular - there's a cycle lane going into Gosport that is on the road (an ASL) for much of it's distance, then it goes onto the pavement (so it takes you out of the flow of traffic) ... then it goes round the corner ... and ends at a bollard, where you have to get back onto the road ... at that point the road is narrower, so you have effectively been taken out of the flow of traffic, plonked onto the pavement ... then brought to an abrupt halt by a bollard ... whereupon you have to stop and wait for a gap to get back onto the road again! Stoooopid!
My reasons as follows:
1) Cars emerging from minor roads tend to give way to me if I am on the road, but not if I am on the cycle lane on the pavement - they often don't see cyclists on the pavement because we have a lot of trees and grass verges on the pavements round here, which means the pavement is very wide and set well back from the junction.
2) Pedestrians don't always move when I ring my handlebar bell from behind them, or they panic and start hopping from side to side, saying "Sorry mate! Errr ... sorry mate!", despite the fact that I have squeezed myself far over to the left ... so they should hop to the opposite side ... duh!
3) Some of these cycle paths are actually a bloody nuisance! I'll give you one example in particular - there's a cycle lane going into Gosport that is on the road (an ASL) for much of it's distance, then it goes onto the pavement (so it takes you out of the flow of traffic) ... then it goes round the corner ... and ends at a bollard, where you have to get back onto the road ... at that point the road is narrower, so you have effectively been taken out of the flow of traffic, plonked onto the pavement ... then brought to an abrupt halt by a bollard ... whereupon you have to stop and wait for a gap to get back onto the road again! Stoooopid!
